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This week's been spent in the company of some fabulous women!
On Wednesday I met up with my friend Lynn, caught a train to Birmingham's New Street Station and then caught a bus up to the leafy suburb of Edgbaston, home to The Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
The gorgeous Grade 1 listed Art Deco building, designed by Robert Atkinson in the 1930s and opened by Queen Mary in 1939, was the first building in the UK to be purpose-built for the study of art history.
The Barber Institute is currently hosting a free exhibition called Scent & the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, exploring the genres' relationship with fragrance which started on 11 October and runs until 26 January 2025.
Founded by Lady Martha Barber in 1932, The Barber Institute was bequeathed to the University of Birmingham for "the study and encouragement of art and music" in memory of her husband William Henry Barber, a wealthy property developer.
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| Lady Barber by James Shannon |
According to the catalogue: The paintings of the pre-Raphaelite movement are rich in references to scent. Linked with concepts of hedonism, beauty, and synaesthesia, fragrance is an often forgotten aspect of these famously sensual works. Ideas of aroma and smell also intersected with the most heated issues of Victorian society, including sanitation, urban morality, immigration, race, mental health, faith and the rise in women's independence.
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| John William Waterhouse, The Shrine, 1895 |
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| Evelyn De Morgan, Medea, 1889 |
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| Simeon Solomon, A Saint of the Eastern Church (formerly A Greek Acolyte), 1867 |
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| Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, The Lover's World, 1905 |
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| John Everett Millais, The Blind Girl, 1856 |
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| Frederick Augustus Sandys, Gentle Spring,1865 |
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| John Frederick Lewis, Lilium Auratum, 1871 |
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| John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past, 1859 |
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| Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Proserpine, 1882 |
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| John William Waterhouse, Psyche Opening the Golden Box, 1903 |
Scent is a compact exhibition with an optional scent experience with floral and incense aromas to accompany the artworks. There's only eleven paintings on display which means we could spend ages admiring every tiny detail rather than being overwhelmed by beauty.
The Barber is home to one of the finest small European art collections in the UK and has works by Sandro Botticelli, Thomas Gainsborough, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Gwen John & Käthe Kollwitz amongst many others.
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Hot Jesus is actually Anthony van Dyck’s Ecce Homo painted between 1621 and 1627.
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Here's Lynn looking fabulous and here's me & a toilet selfie (classy to the last!)
We caught the bus back into town, enjoyed a chicken shawarma wrap (Lynn) and a cheese & tomato panini (me) accompanied by chilled glasses of Pinot for a bargain £7.15 in the buzzing Wetherspoons' London & Northwestern within New Street station, before catching our train back to Walsall.
Two days later and I was back in Birmingham, meeting up with Nikki in our usual spot, outside M&S Food in New Street Station.
Although he was from Wolverhampton, there was a large tribute to Liam Payne from One Direction, who'd died last week.
Nikki and I's destination was Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery which had reopened on Thursday after being partially shut for four years. We headed straight to the Edwardian Tearooms when we went utterly mad and shared a slice of lemon drizzle cake with our pot of tea.
It was good to see my old friend, the mural depicting Corporation Street, Birmingham, March 1914 by Joseph Southall. A copy of it hung on the wall at home when I was a child.
The people of Walsall own a large amount of Jacob Epstein's work, bequeathed to us by his widow, Kitty Garman, born up the road in Wednesbury. The gorgeous Lucifer (above) was gifted by the artist to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1947 and has weakened many a museum visitor's knees over the decades (mine included!)
Stunningly beautiful art by Edward Burne-Jones, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and a famous son of the city.
The much-missed Benji. RIP.
An instantly recognisable Grayson Perry ceramic.
And an equally recognisable Nikki!
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery opened to the public in November 1885.
After a wander around town, taking in Pigeon Park along the way, we headed to the Indian Brewery at Snow Hill for Chaart Attack and pints of IPA.
The Indian Brewery is opening a second venue in Mary Ann Street on 15th November, offering real ale and pizza...we'll be there!
Despite Shefali Oza (the BBC Midlands weather woman) promising us sunshine, Friday was damp and misty, the Post Office tower was barely visible ut at least it wasn't cold.
Time to strike a pose before catching our respective trains home.
Thanks for two top days out, Lynn & Nikki! Let's do it again very soon.
(And thanks to Nikki for the blog title suggestion!)
The first building that was ever build with intention of being used to study art history is stunning. I love discovering things like this with your blog Vix!
ReplyDeleteYour outfit was fabulous...and your friends look very stylish too.
I loved the photos you shared with us...the paintings and the sculptures. The Lucifer statue is so full of details, and makes the fallen angel look very credible in his arrogance and beauty.
So wonderful that you were able to see Scent & the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. I love the poster for the exhibition (and the painting they used for the poster.) I always found that painting incredibly moving, with the two sisters beggars, one blind, but both happy and enjoying the warmth of the sun on their face. That's the kind of painting that has magical power. Despite the seriousness of the theme, it transmits such feeling of hope and optimism to me.
How amazing is art by Edward Burne-Jones!!!! He's the first person that comes to my mind when I think of the Pre-Raphaelite painters.
Oh what lovely trips out you had. You girls all look fabulous. What wonderful art work, there are some tremendous places to visit in your locale. What a lovely photo of Benjamin Zephania. My sons and I had the pleasure of meeting him when he came to our library many years ago and read some of his poetry. The boys as they were then loved the poem " I don't like broccoli" spoken in his mellow voice and with great rhythm. He was charming, so sad he has gone. A lovely post thank you. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteAH, what a beautiful place and so many gorgeous paintings! I love the lady with the harp/dulcimer/zither/whatever it is, who you wished was with her counterparts!!! You could totally dress as her!
ReplyDeleteYour dresses and outfits are stunning and well suited to the environment- all of you!
I really need to try a Chaat Attack!
I really must come to Birmingham one day!x
I'm LoveT. :)
ReplyDeleteThe exhibition in the Barber Institute had an interesting topic. I would also like to see the exhibition in Vienna.
Your friend Nikki looks like a ray of sunshine in her yellow dress and blonde hair
I can't see it clearly, but I think you're wearing your new hat? Anyway, looks great.
I love your out and about posts Vix, and you grace the galleries beautifully. The Barber institute was always a favourite to visit when I was up at the NEC. My wanders were often accompanied by music from the adjacent concert hall. The scent made me think of those precious glass vials for scented oils I saw in the archaeological museum of Kissamos last week. Yes! We finally returned to Greece after a lapse of 32 years (S was last seen on Crete in 1972 hitching having left the Austin A40 he’d driven down to Athens with his mates at his classics master’s house in Athens!). We were staying in a 10 room hotel and taverna with open air yoga studio on Molos beach on the edge of Kissamos, about 40 km northwest of Chania, The sea was rough but warm and I swam, well mostly body surfed as the waves were 2m high, every day and we had some fabulous away days including catching the bus to Chania to explore the pretty Venetian port, walking the Sirikari gorge - an 8km trek through the 2500m high White mountains with the scent of wild cyclamen and mountain thyme filling the air accompanied by Stelios who really knew his botany, a tour down to the south of Crete to have a day swimming and snorkelling in the sleepy lagoon (at this time of year) of Elafonisi with its pink sand. On the way back we stopped to explore the huge cathedral-like limestone caves and the monastery with the golden steps. As well as the fantastic archaeological museum Kissamos has an archaeological trail exploring the ruins of the Greco-Romano town before it was destroyed by an earthquake in 365 AD. Huge Cretan pithoi casually standing amidst the Roman baths, wonderful mosaic floors - just mind blowing. We also stumbled upon an archaeological dig being filmed by an Italian film crew who were uncovering 5.7 million year old hominem biped footprints in the sand just outside Kissamos, knocking into a cocked hat the previous earliest biped footprints found in in Tanzania 3.6 millIon years ago. It was a wonderful holiday made all the better by spending it in the company of 12 like-minded yogis as we practised yoga morning and evening every day and we’re already booked to return at the end of April as S who has Parkinson’s Disease benefited so much from everything we did. Yassou to you Vix and Jon. (PS son T has been climbing in the Kashmiri mountains - getting up to 5250m - and then had a week at Kerala chilling with surfing and yoga and has just flown into Hanoi - he is living his best life and only able to take four months off to travel the world while paying rent in London thanks to the success of his Vinted business - long live secondhand clothing traders!) Sarah x
ReplyDeleteI think our Glasgow School of Art might have predated your Barber Institute, both beautiful art nouveau and art deco buildings nevertheless. Would love to visit the exhibition with all of those wonderous paintings. What a gift. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery looks wonderful too, especially Lucifer. What a fascinating statue. So much to interpret about it (including the obvious!). Thanks for sharing your culture vulture days out! Loved reading about everything.xxx
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post, the art, the buildings, that amazing staircase and Lucifer thrown in for good measure, although unusually I prefer 'Hot Jesus'. What a great couple of days for you, and you and your friends looked amazing and did the art and places you visited proud.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to photograph some of the finer details too, it's lovely when you have the time and ability to really focus on such beautiful paintings in a gallery isn't it.
Goodness, there's a lot to look at here! Gorgeous artwork. xxx
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